Friday, February 09, 2007

TSN has an interesting post on the on-going negotiations between MLSE and Darcy Tucker's camp, including the news that Tucker is looking for a no-movement clause.

Great. A no-movement clause. That's just what you want to give out in a hard-capped, guaranteed contract environment - especially to a hard-playing small bodied 32 year old who is approaching the brittle years of his career. Even better when your club already has 1/3 of its salary tied up in just three players on the blue line.

I know these things are played out in the media as part of the on-going negotiations between filthy rich athletes and the mega-corporations that employ them, but if MLSE can't ink this guy for less than $3.5M/year for 3 years without a NMC he should be dealt.

Oh wait, TSN quoted JFJ as saying what?

"I don't see too many playoff worthy teams shedding top players at the deadline. I would call that atypical."

Man, I hope JFJ is using "atypical" in the same way that it's atypical for a team to be this bad defensively while employing the second highest paid defence in the league.

Or maybe JFJ meant atypical like telling everyone you have a "Master Plan" that's all about building from within and then dealing your top ranked goaltending prospect for Raycroft...

Perhaps it's "top players" that JFJ is having trouble defining. Maybe by "top players" he means players that don't have a broken foot.

Ah hell, JFJ is going to ink this guy to a four year, $15M+ deal with a big fat non-movement clause. The Leafs will be maxed out to the cap again thereby limiting their ability to make deals. Three years from now, MLSE GM Garth Snow will have to waive Tucker and the team will eat $1.88M in Salary...

One other thing to consider:With Tucker, the Leafs are 18-16-5 that's a .526 winning percentageWithout Tucker, the Leafs are 9-6-1 good for a .593 winning percentage

I think there's a whole post - if not a blog in itself - in your final comment: "But of course it's the Leafs..."

JFJ did some great stuff this off-season (Gill; Domi; Belfour) and some nice moves during the year (Devereaux) but I still have this terrible feeling that he can't be trusted. That as soon as the missus and I head off for a vacation he's going to invite the whole neighbourhood over and trash the joint...